This test demonstrates exactly what an engineer is required to do in industry. This is: Computing energy losses in both a series and parallel pipe system.

Mistake 1: When I made a list of energy losses from point a to point b. I decided to examine the two tees in the system because the bypass gate is closed and the flow through the tee is only going in one direction. However, after looking at the test solution, I should have examined them as tees. To prevent this in the future I will treat a tee as a tee.

A grade based on the writing rubric provided in the test and the correctness of your solution.

PUMP HEAD                         

Initial setup – labeling, reference, points                 1/5 out of 1/5          

Appropriate use of Bernoulli’s to solve for hA        1/5 out of 1/5

Compute all 11 energy losses                                   0.75/5 out of 1/5

Compute pump power                                              1/5 out of 1/5

Correct final results                                                  1/5 out of 1/5

TOTAL FLOW RATE AFTER OPENING VALVE

Setting up the equations (2 eq from Bernoulli)        1/6 out of 1/6

Consider ALL energy losses in each branch            1/6 out of 1/6

Setting up the iteration process                                1/6 out of 1/6

Solving the equations using excel                            1/6 out of 1/6

Tried all valve opening cases                                   1/6 out of 1/6

Correct final results                                                  0.5/6 out of 1/6

FINAL GRADE:

(90/2)*(4.75/5 + 5.5/6) = 84

I have learned that, despite a large complex problem, any engineering problem can be simplified and solved. I have learned to work carefully and not skip steps or rush through the simple math work. Engineers use these concepts while designing a new system or while determining the properties of an existing system. An engineering that is designing a large scale heating system will use this concepts. I will use these concepts and techniques that I learned in this class while designing a pipe system. I believe that the concepts that I learned, the skills that I have developed, and the techniques that I have learned are extremely important to my professional career. They will make me a more valuable and versatile employee. I have not been able to apply the concepts that I have learned in other courses yet. However, while I am learning about thermodynamics applications, I can see that theses two courses are closely related. I have improved at calculating the energy losses in a system. At the beginning of the semester, this concept was very confusing to be but it is easy for me to understand now. I also greatly improved at the iteration process. When I first learned this concept a few weeks ago, I was completely lost. This course does not intersect with my current career as a drafter. However, this course has encouraged me to think about pursuing other career paths. I believe that this test is of good quality and accurately demonstrates my abilities to complete this course work.

MET330_JohnMiles_Test3